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HONEYMOON

by Kunosenpai

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"Don't you like this view?"

"Mmm", I answer, without really paying attention to her.

I hear the sound of her footsteps approaching, but I decide that it's not necessary to turn toward her.

"I don't think I've ever seen so much snow in my entire life!", she exclaims with an enthusiastic, slightly childish voice. "It seems to be in an enchanted world."

Without looking away from the bark, I mutter another answer. Or at least I think I did. I can't share her amazement: after all I've seen hundreds of similar landscapes, during my years of martial arts training. I already know that there won't be something new and stunning to my eyes, at least not worthy to distract me from my work.

"Honestly!" Now her tone is different, altered, more in line with the 'sweet fiance' I knew. I was just wondering when she would return. "May I know what are you doing so important?! You could at least look at me, these are not the circumstances to get in a corner to play like a kindergarten child!"

I hardly hold back a big laugh. She's one to talk, claiming to give me lessons of maturity, impetuous, stubborn and touchy as she is. But maybe... she does have a point. Much as it sounds a bit strange to admit it, I'm not perfect either.

Perhaps the truth is that we two are very similar, and that at least would explain why we are in this place, surrounded by her 'dream landscape', although I don't nourish any concern towards such frivolous sentimentalities.

For example I'm stubborn, I acknowledge that. And above all, we are both very impulsive, proud, stuck to the issues of honor, or simply to our own self-esteem, although... I repress a stab of pain, reviving the past. Although, I say to myself, that our difficult character has seriously threatened to separate our lives more than once. Now I remember well why we are here.

"Enough! Let me see what you're doing with that tree!", her voice shakes me from my thoughts; I realize that her steps are close, too close, and I have not finished yet. I'm so stupid, at the end I distracted myself all the same.

"You promised you wouldn't look until I told you so!", I protest, trying to hide my work to her.

"Well, I've changed my mind", she nervously replies. Of course, the fact that even now I haven't turned in her direction is not contributing much to calm her down.

But I just need a little more time...

"I remind you that this trip to Deai Resort was thought for two people. It's too much to ask your full attention at least on our honeymoon?"

Here we go. I'm scratching away the last shaving.

"There, finished! If you really care so much, now you can watch!"

I abruptly step aside, freeing the visual and taking her off guard.

"I will not hear another...", she stops and stares at what is behind me.

After a few seconds her face blushes significantly and it's then that I begin to realize that my gesture could be interpreted as, um, embarrassing.

I slowly turn around and contemplate in silence with her, carved on the large trunk of the tree, the stylized drawing of an umbrella: on the sides of the handle, the ideograms of our names. Really an excellent Ai Ai Gasa, if I may say so.

Yet I am in a cold sweat and my breathing is becoming stressed. She could misunderstand. If she had already misunderstood? After all, she didn't say a word.

"Well, however, if you don't like it, never mind", I fiddle nervously with my fingers, looking down on the tip of my shoes. "I sliced for the hell of it, um, to spend time..."

A hand rests gently on my shoulder and pushes me to turn around again to her.

"Who are you and what have you done with my fiance?", she asks me, articulating every word. And there is no bitterness in her tone, but rather a hint of amused irreverence.

Suddenly I calm down and play along, while taking care not to make observations about her lame sense of humour. "First, it is more correct 'husband'. Furthermore you should know that, after all, I'm a sensitive and kind person... Mrs. Saotome."

I feel a shiver as I say the last two words. Will I ever get used to that? And to say that it feels like yesterday when we were two kids always fighting with each other. But time passes, we get older and a little more mature.

Not that I personally feel much different from before; however, until some time ago, I had never thought I would make a gesture like today's.

"To make me know that, you should try to show it more often", she says, "but this is certainly a good start. Thank you... Mr. Saotome."

I feel her smile even before I meet it with my eyes. She reduces the distance between our faces and gives me a quick, warm kiss on the cheek.

Grown up or not, changed or not, I don't think I'll ever get used to such soppiness. At least not with me as the author.

However, admiring her radiant face, I have to admit that sometimes it's worth it.

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"Here it is, exactly where I remembered it to be!", the man in front of me exclaims, and I stare at the scene in disbelief, as in front of a horror movie. Or better, a Z movie.

Pop doesn't seem to have noticed it and sighs dreamily. "Now I understand why this place seemed so familiar. Admire, Ranma, the work of a man in love!", he says pointing out to the trunk of the scandal and the scribble that bears impressed, barely legible and not because of age, the names 'Genma' and 'Nodoka'.

Up to this moment, quite frankly, I had thought it was a joke, one of his many lies.

"Who are you and what have you done with my father?", I hiss, staring at him as he was an alien.

My old man coughs loudly and mumbles: "You should understand, once and for all, that this joke is not funny..." I don't know what he's referring to, not that I care.

Getting over the surprise, I look back at the carving and the question arises spontaneously.

I'm more than used to dealing with this good-for-nothing of a parent, but is it possible that, unbeknown to me, once he was a different person, even capable of winning over a beautiful and distinct woman like my mother?

This question leads into another one, more personal; growing up, will I become a different person too? If my old man did such sentimentalities, this means that I could make a similar gesture for Aka... for the person with whom one day I'll decide to spend the rest of my life?

I'm shivering just thinking about it. Out of the question.

I shake my head with conviction and, in doing so, I feel Pop's gaze laid on me.

For a moment I could swear he's laughing up his sleeve.

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A/N: Ai Ai Gasa (相合傘) literally means "sharing an umbrella", but the first two characters are pronounced as the word "love". Like American sweethearts carve their love on the trunk of a tree, Japanese sweethearts draw this as an expression of their love.

The final scene of this one-shot takes place at an exact point in the manga (the "Saotome Family (Onsen) Vacation" chapter from vol. 33) but this is not important for the understanding of the story, it's relevant only as a source of my inspiration. :)

Unlike "Chasing the Evening Shadows", I translated this fanfiction from Italian myself. I hope I haven't made too many errors. I also hope to hear your impressions about this story. ;-)

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